Day 2 :
Keynote Forum
Elliot R. Bernstein
Colorado State University, USA
Keynote: Euv laser mass spectrometry and photoelectron spectroscopy of mass selected neutral clusters and molecules
Time : 9:00 - 9:30 AM
Biography:
Bernstein received his Ph.D. degree from Caltech and was a post doctoral fellow at the University of Chicago. He has been at CSU since 1975 where he has studied molecular crystal vibrational and electronic excitons and phase transitions, cryogenic liquids, and gas phase clusters with a central focus on intermolecular interactions. Recently his research has focused on chemical reactions of neutral and ionic clusters. This latter research area has involved catalytic and photocatalytic cluster systems, solute/solvent systems, the reactions of ionized molecules and clusters, and initial steps in the release of stored energy molecular species.
Abstract:
A long standing set of goals for studies of systems of inhomogeneous, neutral clusters (e.g., MmXn or (molecule)p) has been to mass sort and select them individually for determination of physical and chemical properties of each neutral cluster by spectroscopic techniques. We have constructed appropriate instrumentation to achieve these important goals employing photoelectron spectroscopy (PES), driven by both visible (for MmXn -) and EUV (for MmXn0) radiation. Our 26.5 eV/photon EUV laser can ionize any neutral cluster or molecule (EUV PES) that can be identified and isolated. The algorithm includes the following steps: 1. generation of cluster negative ions in a laser ablation supersonic source with the addition, as required, of low energy electrons from a Y2O3 disk; 2. separation of these anionic clusters in a reflectron time of flight mass spectrometer (RTOFMS); 3. selection and slowing of specific, chosen clusters in a mass gate/momentum deceleration stage; 4. threshold photo-detachment of the sorted and selected negative ion clusters with a tunable VIS/UV laser to generate neutral, isolated clusters; and 5. EUV PES of these neutral clusters. Such studies generate vibrational and structural information on the ground states of the neutral clusters (through VIS/UV PES), and information on the ion states of the clusters (through EUV PES). The presentation will include PES results on various metal oxides, sulfides, and other cluster systems and molecules.
Keynote Forum
Brigitte Simons
SCIEX, Canada
Keynote: Quantitation of Lipids in High Throughput; the shotgun lipidomics profiling of NAFLD and steatohepatitis by ion mobility-MS data acquisition techniques
Time : 9:30 - 10:00 AM
Biography:
Brigitte Simons is a market development specialist at SCIEX, specializing in metabolomics using accurate mass time-of-flight mass spectrometry solutions. Prior to working at SCIEX, Brigitte received her Ph.D. in Chemical Biology at the University of Ottawa. She then completed two research post-doctoral fellowships at the Centre for Biologics Research at Health Canada and the National Institute of Heart Lung and Blood in Bethesda MD. Brigitte also spearheads an academic partnerships program for our North American business – which listeners can browse sciex.com for more information or contact Brigitte for more information.
Abstract:
This presentation will address technologies that directly address clinical research experimentation of lipids in tissue extracts, keeping sampling and data processing throughput in mind. The human lipidome contains >100,000 different molecular species found within a small mass range; consequently, isobaric overlap makes unambiguous identification and quantitation of lipid species difficult. Herein, methods that utilize high sensitivity MS/MS techniques using a high sensitivity triple quadrupole linked LIT mass spectrometer to isolate lipid classes for identification of molecular composition and quantitation have been investigated. Furthermore, QqQ platforms can now be coupled to differential ion mobility (DMS) devices and have shown to resolve phospholipid sub-classes, triglycerides, and strikingly, the sphingomyelins (SM) were resolved from PC molecular species. The latter observation is significant considering these two classes cannot be resolved using triple quadrupole strategies alone, and their masses overlap significantly. Alterations in hepatic phospholipid composition, especially the amount of phosphatidylcholine (PC) and the ratio of PC to phosphatidylanolamine (PE) might contribute to the development non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Aim was to compare PC/PE ratio in patients with NAFLD or chronic Hepatitis C (CHC) to healthy controls. This was a cross-sectional study. Liver samples were obtained from healthy controls (HC), patients with simple steatosis (SS), and steatohepatitis (NASH). Lipids were extracted from liver tissue and the total PC and PE lipid detected was quantified by tandem mass spectrometry using multiple precursor ion scanning [normalized by internal standards]. Hepatic PC/PE ratio was lower in all 3 patient groups, mainly due to a reduction in PC, which was significant in SS and NASH compared to controls. This study confirms previous animal data on PC/PE in NAFLD and represents a high throughput lipidomics platform’s utility to clinical outputs.
Keynote Forum
Magnus S. Magnusson
University of Iceland, Iceland
Keynote: Similarity of Hierarchical Structured Clustering in Human and Neuronal interactions and on DNA: Structural and Functional analogies.
Time : 10:00 - 10:30 AM
Biography:
Magnus S Magnusson, Research Professor. PhD in 1983, University of Copenhagen. Author of the T-pattern model and the corresponding detection algorithms in THEME. He has focused on real-time organization of behavior, co-directed DNA analysis, numerous papers and invited talks at numerous conferences and universities in Europe, USA and Japan. Deputy Director 1983-1988, Anthropology Laboratory, Museum of Natural History, Paris. Repeatedly invited temporary Professor at the University of Paris. Since 1991, Founder and Director of the Human Behavior Laboratory, University of Iceland. Since 1995, he is in collaboration between 24 universities based on “Magnusson’s analytical model” initiated at the Sorbonne, Paris
Abstract:
Hierarchical structured clustering (HSC) seems characteristic of the structure of the universe balancing a small number of forces, some pulling others pushing apart, the self-similar fractal distribution of matter in the universe thus reflecting HST rather than just dispersion or clumping. HSC also characterizes a proposed pattern type, called T-pattern, detected in the temporal organization of many kinds of verbal and non-verbal human, animal and neuronal behavior and interactions and is also characteristic of the structure of DNA. Functional analogies seem to exist between the occurrence of T-patterns in “cell city” and in human cities. Structural self-similarity over many levels of biological organization suggests the possibility of a unified (mathematical, bioinformatics and system biological) approach. The T-pattern is described as a repeated hierarchical and self-similar tree structure based on a single non-terminal relation, called a critical interval (CI) relationship. The instances of a T-pattern may be seen as repeated statistical pseudo-fractal objects characterized by statistically significant translation symmetry. THEMEtm (by M.S. Magnusson, ©PatternVision Ltd) is special purpose T-pattern detection and analysis PC software using a special CI detection algorithm combined with an evolution algorithm, presented here together with results from the analysis of behavior and interactions. From the relatively slow time scale of human and animal interactions to the much faster interactions within populations of neurons in living rat brains. Analogies are discussed between T-pattern structure and functions in the „cities of proteins“ (cell city) and human cities, especially regarding specialization and the particular case of religious behavior.